Comments By Robsteeler

Sometimes I feel like an idiot backing in and pulling up a bunch of times. Sometimes I even slide my tandems all the way back so my tail swing is gone. Had to do that at Marshall's in Philly last week. But I don't care what other drivers think. If I get it in and don't hit anything I call that a win. 🙂

I've been so busy, I needed some time off. Really run down. I've been burning up my 70 and running off recap hours, but I got stuck in Florida last week with no freight for a day. I'm staying home till next Friday and getting blood work done on Tuesday. Hopefully I'm just tired and old, not coming down with something.

10 whole months. My company allows that as well, but I completely disagree with it.

Just a question about the simulators...how close are they to how a steer tire blowout feels, or a full on skid on ice? I had a slight skid on ice in my actual truck, and it didn't seem the same to me as the Sim.

I keep my seat low and move and flex my legs as much as possible. Unfortunately, the new cascadia has a different hood mirror design and I've had to increase my seat height to see them. I've noticed a difference, but I've adjusted my seat down until I need to crane my neck to see the mirrors. It's a compromise, but it's put me almost where I was before. Move as much as possible.

Yep, mountains, dense fog, and dark are a scary combination. Even our eastern "tiny" mountains.

Brett, you say freight is slow, I say freight is slow, everybody says freight is slow and right now I'm waiting for a load, so why why is it that every time I hit an OC, yesterday for one, I see full classes of trainees. The OC I stopped in also had rows upon rows of brand new trucks with the plastic on the seats as well. What do they know that no one else seems to know?

Why is there such a disparity in training miles from company to company? At Schneider I only drove two weeks with my trainer (plus or minus 6,000 miles) and then they put me solo. I loved getting out on my own, but in retrospect, I really needed more training.

YOU needed training? I only had a week, which broke down to 3 1/2 days of actual driving training with a home daily guy. He rushed through the day so he could make it home. I'm lucky I didn't have an actual accident. The little incidents I had would have been prevented with a bit more experience. I really hope I'm past that sort of thing at this point, but I don't want to get complacent. The saving Grace is that Schneider's instructors really are top notch. I think the incidents I had resulting in more training really helped.

Just a tip that I've noticed. It's mostly steering input that triggers these events. Any sudden, or jerky movements WILL trigger stability control. That's why I repeat SMOOTH out loud as I go through turns. I can go twice as fast around a turn if I'm completely smooth and deliberate. If I'm going 9 mph(one of my events) and jerk the wheel it will trigger. Also, you may be issued a new truck, P4 in our parlance, with no training on it like I was. Just remember to go smoothly around turns, and don't hit the brakes as hard as the old Freightliners. The discs grab harder and faster and will trigger a critical event hard braking if you hit it too hard. I've also noticed that the sensors for the cruise control are not as precise as the last one. It doesn't want to slow me down for when people are really in front of me. It gets me much closer to traffic than I like. I think there is a way to adjust that and I'm going to ask about it. Also, sometimes it doesn't see stopped traffic. DO NOT DEPEND ON IT TO STOP YOU! You shouldn't anyway, but sometimes you think it'll slow you down and it won't. But it will for an overpass shadow. 😂 Bottom line...be very careful with it. It's different than you're used to. Ask for training on the new truck.

The sensors are crazy, and have given me weird critical events as well. Some of them don't even get back to my DBL for some reason. I just had a stability control the other day turning into traffic. I was going 6 mph and hit a bump. I think when the wheel is turned, these things are super sensitive. I also had training on the new truck after two critical events. A stability control event, and a hard braking. The difference is as soon as I saw how sensitive the new truck is, these things would not have triggered my old truck, I asked for more training. Now I talk to myself every time I turn. It has been working mostly. I did have a critical event recently where it actually said I crashed the truck. Never triggered to the company. I was driving in a construction zone and it got wonky because a sign was ahead and it lightly put on the brakes and flashed red. Then I turned because the road turned and it triggered a collision critical event. With this said, I can't believe Schneider terminated you. They very much try not to. I'm not sure if you had an attitude, or something else happened. Good luck.